Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor Sounds Ridiculously Ambitious

NeocoreGames revealed today that they're making an action RPG set in the sci-fi Warhammer 40,000 universe. They make some huge promises about the game in their initial announcement.

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor – Martyr lets players become members of the Inquisition, an elite organization that serves the Imperium, a galactic human empire. The Inquisitors wage a secret war against all threats to the Imperium including rebels, aliens, and heretics.

The trailer doesn't give us much to go on. We see a few close-ups of an Inquisitor's armor and equipment. Then there's a brief shot of him firing a gun before the game's logo appears.

“There’s a reason why we chose the world of Warhammer 40,000: it’s intense, brutal, visceral – a perfect material for an action RPG,” producer Zoltán Pozsonyi told IGN. “Working with Games Workshop, we’re doing our best to bring a high quality game to the community. We’re huge fans as well, so we care deeply about this game.”

NeocoreGames seems to suggest that Martyr is going to be an open-world game. They describe the game as a "persistent sandbox." Once you've finished the campaign, they promise that that there will still be plenty to do in this sandbox. They go so far as to promise "years of constant entertainment" through regular content updates.

On top of all that, the subtitle after Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor suggests to me that they've got multiple games planned. Maybe a trilogy?

The game sounds, frankly, awesome. I love open-world RPGs and the war-torn universe of Warhammer 40K sounds like a great setting for one. We've seen glimpses of this universe in Space Marine and Dawn of War 2 but a free-roaming game would allow for a much deeper dive into the setting.

However, there's often a huge gap between what a game sounds like on paper and what it's actually like. The pledge to deliver "years" of entertainment was enough to set off alarm bells for me.

The other reason I'm a bit skeptical is the developer. NeocoreGames has years of experience, but their past releases - such as The Incredible Adventures of Van Helsing and King Arthur: The Role-playing Wargame - have received mixed reviews. I hope that they can really deliver on Martyr but I'll need to see more than a teaser trailer and some exciting quotes to get really amped up for the game.

Warhammer 40,000: Inquisitor - Martyr will debut in 2016 on PC, Mac, Xbox One and PS4.